Bendis said that Scott Summers is another character he’s enjoying writing, since he’s dealing with two different versions – the current epitome of villainy in comics and the young, idealistic version that will discover he’s going to become “everything he’s fighting against.”

He continued, “How these characters change from meeting each other and being here is a very complicated idea with many, many flavors and I’m thrilled that it’s an ongoing series that’s going to let me look at this from every conceivable angle.” The writer said that the other X-Men will be looking at the young Scott Summers and kinda-sorta blaming him for what happened to Xavier, even though he’s not really done anything wrong.

Beyond just the time travel aspect of the story, Bendis said that his tale would also deal a lot “with modern day Cyclops and what his agenda is and who is alliances are with. That will take shape very quickly in the first issue. What he’s going to do, who he’s going to do it with, and where he’s going to be. It’s a completely different shape. As different as when the Avengers moved from Avengers Mansion to Avengers Tower.”

Bendis also brought up an interesting point in regard to the Cyclops situation. “The world at large… nobody knows that Cyclops killed Xavier. That is not public knowledge. But it happened in front of a lot of people. It happened in front of all of the Avengers and all of the X-Men. It’s going to take on a Rashomon-style quality. A lot of people saw it, but everybody saw a different thing.” He explained that some might consider that Xavier offered himself up for martyrdom, while others might see it as though Scott really had no choice but to do what he did.

There will also be close ties to Wolverine and the X-Men and the Jean Grey School, as the influx of new mutants as seen at the end of AvX will be serving as a breeding ground for new characters. “There’re new X-Men. We’re not calling it All-New X-Men for nothing. There are new X-Men debuting in our very first issue; brand new characters. You’re welcome, FOX!”

Bendis said he’s been working closely with Lowe and Wolverine and the X-Men scribe Jason Aaron to create an interesting new landscape for X-Men across the board, referencing issue #24 of that series as a place to see Aaron having fun with the concept. “This is going to be an opportunity for some of the X-Men to stand up and say, you know what, I was looking for a way to personally take my stake in Xavier’s dream, and what could be more clear than helping these kids do what it is that they want to do?”

Though much of the series seems to be dealing with internal conflict and shifting agendas between X-Men characters, there will still be X-Men villains taking an interest in what’s happening at the Jean Grey School. Bendis spoiled who the villain would be, saying, “A very big antagonist for the X-Men, in this book particularly, is going to be a very roused up Mystique. She’s going to be a character very interested in the original five X-Men coming here.”

In terms of where exactly in continuity the original X-Men come from, Bendis said he re-read issues #1-20 of the original series, and that in the first issue we’ll see a scene that specifically calls out where they traveled from. However, the idea of seeing what decade the X-Men came from will not be explored. Bendis said that pointing out specifics or anachronisms didn’t interest him. He gave a rough estimate of the X-Men being formed “12 years ago,” but that continuity hounds shouldn’t be trying to place what year these X-Men came from, because it’s not important.

That being said, he is interested in the idea of the consequences of playing with time and space, and that something that happens in X-Men will have a ripple effect throughout the universe that he’ll pick up on in his upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy work.

Finally, the lingering AvX player of Hope Summers was brought up, and Bendis said that there are indeed big plans for Hope in general, but we wouldn’t be seeing her until later on in this series; though he does want to make sure he gets to show her interact with Jean. Lowe pointed to Cable and X-Force as Hope’s “home book” in Marvel NOW!.